“It (the meeting) is at Dr Khair’s request. I think it is only right that he knows their (the 51 teachers’) thoughts on the issue,” Dr Wee told reporters after a meeting with Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap, Education secretary-general Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad and Dr Khair yesterday.

Dr Wee clocked in at his office in Menara Usahawan here for his first day of work as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department after being sworn into the Cabinet last Friday.

That meeting between Dr Wee and education ministry officials was at the instruction of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister.

“We took over two hours to analyse and understand this issue,” Dr Wee said.

After the meeting, Yap said the standard operating procedures (SOP) was that the 51 teachers should report in today.

Dr Wee did not comment on this as he said this came under the Education Ministry’s purview.

“Let the teachers meet the director-general first,” he added.

Last Tuesday, Dr Wee raised his concerns over the posting.

He revealed that the 51 teachers were posted to boarding schools, vocational schools and colleges to teach basic Chinese.

“It should have been to Chinese secondary schools.”

Earlier in the day, MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon and Wilayah MCA Education Consultative Com­mittee chairman Eddie Heng Hong Chai led a delegation of 11 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to hand over a memorandum on the posting to Dr Khair.

“We have tried every other method to appeal for these 51 teachers,” Chong said.

He also added that should the teachers not report to their postings today, it would mean that they had rejected the job.